The terms ‘kosmotrope’ (order-maker) and ‘chaotrope’ (disorder-maker) originally denoted solutes that stabilized, or destabilized respectively, proteins and membranes. More recently, the terms have also been used to refer to compounds having the apparently correlating property of increasing, or decreasing respectively, the structuring (ordering) of water. Some compounds (e.g. urea) can act as kosmotropes and chaotropes, depending on the concentration of the compound in a hydrogen bonding environment such as water.
Both the extent and strength of hydrogen bonding may be changed by a kosmotrope. The effect of a kosmotrope on increasing the amount of hydrogen bonding in an aqueous solution is especially important. By effecting such a change in the hydrogen bonding in the solution, a kosmotrope shifts the local equilibrium shown below to the left (and chaotropes shift it to the right)                less dense watermore dense water.In other words, the addition of a kosmotrope to an aqueous system results in a decrease in density of that system. So, by increasing the structure, or order, of the water through the formation of more hydrogen bonds, kosmotropes cause the solution density to decrease.        
Kosmotropes are currently used to stabilize proteins, such as enzymes. It is also said that they affect the phase behavior of lipids. Some well-known kosmotropes are proline, glycine betaine and trehalose. See also Moelbert, S. et al., Biophysical Chemistry, 112, 45-57, 2004. The website: http://www.lsbu.ac.uk is a good reference for kosmotropes and chaotropes.
Gainer et al. Chem. Eng. Commun. 15: 323-329, 1982, showed that crocetin caused an increase in the specific volume of water.
Gainer et al. Ind. Engr. Chem. Research, 33: 2341-2344, 1994 showed that the diffusivity through a solution was proportional to the change in the specific volume.
Carotenoids are a class of hydrocarbons consisting of isoprenoid units. The backbone of the molecule consists of conjugated carbon-carbon double and single bonds, and can also have pendant groups. Carotenoids such as crocetin and trans sodium crocetinate (TSC) are known to increase the diffusivity of oxygen in water.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,060,511 relates to trans sodium crocetinate (TSC) and its uses. The patent covers various uses of TSC such as improving oxygen diffusivity and treatment of hemorrhagic shock.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/647,132 relates to synthesis methods for making bipolar trans carotenoid salts (BTC) and methods of using them.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/361,054 relates to improved BTC synthesis methods and novel uses of the BTC.
U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 60/907,718 relates to the use of bipolar trans carotenoids as a pretreatment and in the treatment of peripheral vascular disease.
Trans sodium crocetinate (TSC) increases the amount of hydrogen bonding when dissolved in water, Stennett et al. J. Phys. Chem. B, 110: 18078-18080, 2006.
In Okonkwo et al., Neurosci Lett. 352(2):97-100, 2003, the authors measured brain oxygen levels in rats. As expected, having the rats breathe 100% oxygen caused the brain oxygen level to increase. An unexpected result was that administering TSC to rats breathing 100% oxygen further increased the brain oxygen level. The combination of 100% oxygen and TSC gave a greater effect than either one alone. In animals suffering from an oxygen deficiency, TSC can be used as a treatment, Giassi, L. J. et al. J. Trauma, 51: 932-938, 2001, and Gainer et al. Pulm. Pharmacol. &Therapeutics, 18: 213-216 (2005).